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Richard C. Trench Loved Words

Dan Graves, MSL

Richard Trench loved words. His whole life was made rich with the
study of them and those studies made the clergyman famous and have
benefited generations of Bible scholars. One of his word books, New
Testament Synonyms, is still helping pastors and students around
the world.

Richard was slow at finding what he wanted to be in life. Born in
Dublin, Ireland in 1807, he attended elite English schools where he did
well. At Cambridge he became one of the idealists known as the
"Apostles." Famous members have included the Christian Socialist F. D.
Maurice, Bible scholar Fenton Hort, and physicist James Clerk Maxwell.

After graduation, Richard (whose ancestry went back to exiled
Huguenots) displayed an adventurous and idealistic streak which led him
to throw his support behind Spanish exiles in an 1830 attempt to
overthrow King Ferdinand VII. The scheme ended in disaster. Richard
escaped with his life because he was at Gibralter.

Until this time, Richard had been unsure what to do with himself. He
had thought of going into law. However, there were clergymen in the
family and he was ordained as a deacon the same year that he married.
Three years later, on this day, July 5, 1835,
he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England.

That same year, Richard published the first of his books, a life of
Justin Martyr in verse. A few years later he issued Notes on the
Parables of Our Lord. Other books on the Scriptures followed: on
Solomon's Proverbs, Christ's Miracles, the Sermon on the Mount, the
Gospels, and John's letters to the seven churches of Asia.

In 1852 he published a popular study of words. In this, he showed how
language is molded by character and molds character. "[Language] is full
of instruction, because it is the embodiment, the incarnation, if I may
so speak, of the feelings and thoughts and experiences of a nation, yea,
often of many nations, and of all which through long centuries they have
attained to and won." Just two years later, he published his New
Testament Synonyms which shows various shades of meanings in the
Greek words. In all of his books, he showed deep wisdom, as for
instance, when he wrote: "We must not conceive of prayer as overcoming
God's reluctance, but as laying hold of His highest willingness."

Another example: "No man can be without his god. If he have not the
true God to bless and sustain him, he will have some false god to delude
and to betray him....For every man has something in which he hopes, on
which he leans, to which he retreats and retires, with which he fills up
his thoughts in empty spaces of time, when he is alone, when he lies
sleepless on his bed, when he is not pressed with other thoughts; to
which he betakes himself in sorrow or trouble, as that from which he
shall draw comfort and strength -- his fortress, his citadel, his
defense; and has not this a good right to be called his god?"

Richard went on to become Bishop of Dublin where his gentle
character, sympathetic spirit and godly life did much to ease the
awkward transition during which his church ceased to be the state church
of Northern Ireland. He died in 1886 after a long illness, beloved by
all.